RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The 28 people missing since the failure of two dams at an iron ore mine flooded a village in southeastern Brazil are unlikely to be found alive, the governor of the affected state said Sunday.

Speaking at a news conference, Minas Gerais Gov. Fernando Pimentel said it was still not known what triggered Thursday's failure of dams at the Samarco mine, which sent viscous red mud, water and debris flooding into the hamlet of Bento Rodrigues, flattening all but a handful of buildings.

The mud tide has continued to spread, causing flooding in other nearby towns, pouring into an area river and threatening the water supply of several cities in the neighboring state of Espirito Santo.

"One lost human life would be irreparable — imagine 28," Pimentel was quoted as saying by the Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Globo. "It's a disaster, a tragedy of great dimension."

One person has been confirmed dead, and 15 village residents and 13 mine workers are listed as missing, the governor and the state fire department said Sunday.

The number of missing has been in flux in recent days, with local officials saying pockets of survivors might still be holed up in isolated areas. Authorities said Saturday that 19 people were missing, a few hours after reporting 23 people unaccounted for.

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A woman washes herself during a break from cleaning her damaged home in Barra Longa, after a dam bur …

The state fire department said on its Twitter feed that two additional bodies had found and sent to the coroner's office for identification. The message cautioned that "it has not been confirmed they are victims of the disaster." In a later tweet, the fire department said a third body was located in the area on Sunday and workers were working to remove it from the mud.

Helicopter searches for survivors resumed Sunday morning despite rainy conditions that have hampered rescue efforts. Emergency response officials have said the volatility of the mud, which is still wet and can act like quicksand, can put rescue workers at risk.

A team of veterinarians was rescuing animals left behind in the tragedy, the governor said.

Pimentel said that Samarco, which is jointly owned by the Brazilian mining company Vale and Australia's BHP Billiton, has provided machines to help in the search efforts and is paying for housing people whose homes were destroyed in the accident. More than 550 people have been put up in hotels in a neighboring city.

The company has insisted the mud is not toxic and does not represent a threat to human health.

Police have restricted access to the disaster zone, making it difficult for journalists to access the affected areas.

Missing in Brazil disaster unlikely to be found

Prospects are dim for finding 28 people missing in a massive mudslide, says the governor of the affected state.
Mud tide still spreading

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the "Forging A Strong Partnership to Enhance Prosperity of Asia" Lecture at the National University of Singapore November 7, 2015. REUTERS/Edgar Su

BEIJING/MANILA (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group next week, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday, amid tensions between China and the Philippines over the disputed South China Sea.

The APEC meeting will take place in Manila from Nov. 17 to 19. APEC's members include the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Canada, and together account for 57 percent of global production and 46.5 percent of world trade.

China has overlapping claims with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.

A summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last week, attended by both the United States and China, failed to produce a final statement because the delegations could not agree on whether to mention the South China Sea dispute.

China has been particularly angered by a case lodged by the Philippines with an arbitration court in the Netherlands over the South China Sea. China says it will neither recognize nor participate in the case.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit the Philippines on Tuesday to discuss preparations for Xi's visit and ways to improve Beijing's relations with Manila, China's Foreign Ministry said.

"At present, because of reasons everyone knows about, Sino-Philippine relations are facing difficulties. This is something China does not wish to see," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing.

"China pays great attention to relations with the Philippines and is willing to appropriately resolve relevant issues on the basis of dialogue and negotiation."

Prior to going to Manila, Xi will attend the G20 summit in Turkey, the foreign ministry added.

A demolition crew on Monday dismantled one of Manila's largest makeshift markets and rounded up homeless families to clean up roads ahead of the summit.

Workers painted sidewalks while dozens of police began patrols around the convention center where the meets will be held.

"We were told to take a vacation for two weeks," Rosa Diaz, a 65-year-old cigarette vendor, said as the wrecking crew dismantled hundreds of stalls selling used clothes, slippers and toys outside a church. "They said we could return after APEC."

A bishop and leftist labor group criticized government's clean-up campaign.

"Their solution is temporary," Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said on radio. "They want to show the visitors that there are no poor people, but why can't we find a permanent solution for our poor people?"

(Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan and Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Beijing (AFP) - A swathe of China was blanketed with acrid smog Monday after levels of dangerous particulates reached around 50 times World Health Organization maximums, in what environmental campaigners said were the highest figures ever recorded in the country.

Pictures showed smog so thick that buildings in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province in the northeast, were rendered invisible.

One image showed a restaurant's neon sign seemingly floating in mid-air above traffic, proclaiming in yellow: “Eastern Dumpling King”.

Levels of PM2.5, the tiny airborne particles considered most harmful to health, reached 860 micrograms per cubic metre in the city of around eight million.

The World Health Organization’s recommended maximum is a 24-hour average of 25 micrograms.

“Today’s haze is pretty severe and choking - when I walked out the door I thought someone’s house was on fire,” said one poster in Changchun on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

China's chronic pollution is generally worse in winter, when power consumption -- much of it fuelled by coal -- rises along with demand for heating to combat the bitter cold.

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A billboard photo showing the Beijing skyline on a clear day is pictured in front of some of the sam …

The scourge has been linked to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths, and has become a major source of popular discontent with the government.

PM2.5 particulates can play a role in heart disease, stroke, and lung ailments such as emphysema and cancer.

Their overall levels reached 1,157 micrograms per cubic metre on Sunday in Shenyang, the capital of the neighbouring province of Liaoning, data from the city's own environmental protection bureau showed.

They peaked as high as 1,400 in parts of Shenyang according to state broadcaster CCTV, with visibility less than 100 metres.

"As far as we are aware from the data we have been observing over the past few years, this is the highest ever PM2.5 level recording" in the country, Greenpeace campaigner Dong Liansai told AFP.

An image circulating online showed a man biking through snow in Shenyang wearing a vintage-looking gas mask, and the official news agency Xinhua quoted a hospital official in the city saying that his respiratory ward had been overwhelmed, with all its beds full.

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Overall levels of PM2.5 particulates reached 1,157 micrograms per cubic metre in Shenyang on Sunday, …

Online commentators were furious.

"If heating companies dare to buy cheap, low-quality coal and pollute the environment, they should be discovered and immediately shot," said one poster.

- 'Central heating' -

Shenyang's apocalyptic smog was caused by coal use from its public heating system and by heavy pollution blown in from other provinces, city environmental authorities said on a verified social media account.

The explanation provoked derision online.

"Sweden also has central heating – why don't they have haze?" asked one poster.

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A residential block obscured by smog in Changchun, in northeast China's Jilin province, on Novem …

Xinhua blasted the city's emergency response as “useless” in the face of "such severe haze and pollution", which it said was the heaviest of the year.

"Fairyland or doomsday?" quipped Xinhua of the sorry winterscapes on its Twitter account.

Calls made to the environmental protection bureau in Shenyang, where more than eight million people live, went unanswered.

The Changchun city government said on social media Monday that it was initiating a “level three” emergency response, telling schools to stop organising outdoor activities, and reminding residents to stay indoors and “take health precautions”, without further specifications.

China used almost 4.3 billion tonnes of coal in 2013, according to the latest official statistics -- in which figures for previous years were revised upwards by hundreds of millions of tonnes.

Beijing has pledged that its emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas pollutant released from the burning of coal, will peak by "around 2030".

Northeastern provinces such as Jilin and Liaoning do not yet have a coal consumption cap, Greenpeace campaigner Dong said, describing it as "a measure which can rapidly improve air quality".

Last month, the environmental group found that nearly 80 percent of Chinese cities had pollution levels that "greatly exceeded" national standards over the first nine months of this year.

Yet online commentators expressed concerns that governmental attempts to clean up the air would be too little, too late.

"It's like this every year," was a common refrain.

One user wrote: "Environmental pollution has made chronic diseases more and more common; we're becoming the sick man of Asia of the new century."

The official explanation is a lie

China's military submarines are a huge threat to U.S. national security

Secret space weapon attacks on China's industrial infrastructure

Taiwan surrenders to China with insane "One China" admission by President Ma

The Trident missile launch near Los Angeles was a warning shot against China in a last-ditch effort to prevent all-out war

China and Russia preparing massive first strike against America

The ultimate pre-emptive strike on America: EMP attack, cyber attack, currency wars and bandwidth blackouts

Defense Secretary Ash Carter is a funny guy. We’re not out to disparage him personally (although we’ll happily disparage Washington’s foreign policy for which he is partially responsible), but he sure does have an uncanny ability to land himself in situations that end up generating amusing photo ops. Here are just two examples from last week:

"Show me some love"...

"Just listening to Kenny Loggins in my headphones with my water bottle and yeah, since you asked, that's my aircraft carrier down there"...

Meanwhile, the situation in the South China Sea is just downright silly, as Washington and Beijing risk starting World War III over 3,000 acres of sand that Beijing piled on top of reefs in the Spratlys.

Still, when you're the face of The Pentagon, you've got to champion the narrative and that narrative now revolves around two things, i) a resurgent Russia, and ii) the rise of China.

Put simply (and colloquially), more than one US military strategist believes the US and NATO would be "annihilated" in a Balkan battle with the Russians and when it comes to China, well, getting into a maritime dispute in the South Pacific (which is the right way to analyze this by the way, because it's not like Beijing is going to sail into San Francisco and invade the US mainland) might be a horrible idea:

So, against that backdrop, and with Russia's dramatic intervention in Syria in mind, Ash gave a keynote speech during the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in southern California, on Saturday.

Below, we present the "highlights" as documented by the DoD and the video clip courtesy of AP. Enjoy your Sunday evening US foreign policy briefing and please do note that Carter suggests Putin wants to nuke America: